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Thursday, December 01, 2016

Labels are bad. All of my life I have
resisted the tendency prevalent in our society to judge or define a
person by race, gender, sexual preference, weight, or other such
narrow criteria. Maybe it's because I am, "that crippled man."
Oh, no one calls me this aloud. But, this judgment does exist. It is
assumed (and often rightly so) that I am unable to do certain things.
But, right or wrong, prejudging my capabilities based on the label
that society has given me robs me of my power.

Growing up, I loved reading comic
books. I still do. The thing about comics is that often the heroes in
the stories lead double lives. There is a juxtaposition between the
seemingly helpless secret identity and the ultra-powerful hero
identity. People judge each side based on appearance: one is seen as
incapable and the other is seen as infallible. But these two sides
are the same person. The lesson here is that appearances are
deceiving. There is more to a person than what you can see.

Comics showed us that the book worm who
was bullied in gym class was also the hero praised on the evening
news. Comics showed us aliens from other worlds who just wanted to
fit in and get the attention of the cute person next to them, even as
we were feeling alien in our own skins and suffering from the same
personal crisis.

Comics, at least the ones that I read
as a kid, had so much to teach us about transcending the labels
placed on us by society and living together (all together) as heroes.
And it's how I have tried to live my life. And it's a message that I
think is especially important to remember today, as I think about our
broken world.

Of course, kids don't read comics so
much anymore. It's all video games now, and I don't get that video
games are shaping children the same way that comics did for me. In
fact, from what I have heard and seen in video game chat communities,
the opposite is happening. I miss the comics. Our world needs these
positive heroic ideas.

Thankfully, these stories aren't gone.
If someone had told the kid that I was reading comic books back in
1977 that he would be watching his favorite superhero stories on the
television screen four nights a week, I am certain that he would not
have been able to believe it. But, it's really happening. The stories
on the CW television line-up are the comics of my youth. They carry
the same positive messages of right and wrong and heroism, of
inclusion and acceptance, of ignoring labels and judging on merit.

Right now Supergirl is sharing the most
intelligent, engaging, heartwarming, and non-judgemental, treatment
of a homosexual relationship that I have ever seen on television.
It's this very real story line that makes Supergirl my most
anticipated show each week. Sure, I am a comic book nerd and the
fantastic spectacle of super heroes, powers, and villains reaches
that boy inside, but it's the other stuff that reaches the man.

I am watching this show with my
daughter. She gets it. She understands that people aren't to be
judged by any preconceived notion or measure. That people are to be
experienced, and their value gauged solely on the breadth of that
experience. I am proud of her for that. And, I am proud of and
thankful to the CW for giving us these amazingly thoughtful and
important stories. Especially now when our world needs them the most.